Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Supermoto Championship ~ THE WORLD CHAMP CAME TO PLAY, AND THE AMA BOYS HAD GAME By SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTOS BY RAy GUNDY d Bull KTM's Thierry van den Bosch and Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Doug Henry were the stars among the tars at round one of the 2005 AMA Supermoto Championship at the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex on the grounds of Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, each man winning a race in the two-race 450cc Supermoto class in very different conditions. The French van den Bosch, the 30year-old reigning World Supermoto Champion, got the holeshot over Henry as the rain poured down in race one, which was shortened to 14 laps and run without the dirt and urban jump sections of the course. "VDB" stayed smooth for the entire race while Henry crashed and fell back. VDB then distanced himself second-placed HMC KTM from Supermoto rider Benny Carlson to earn his first AMA Supermoto win in his first AMA race and only his second race in America. Red Bull KTM's jurgen Kunzel was third. "The setup for the bike was perfect for R the first race, and also the tires were working very good, though that was not the case in the second race," VDB said. "But I think that I did two very good races, and I am very happy." VDB was also complimentary of the AMA Supermoto scene. "For sure, and I hope to make as many races as possible," he said. "I will race Shawano and Nashville, but I must miss Copper Mountain because of the World Championship. But I am leading the points, so I want to race. Also, this is my first AMA racing, and I would like to see all the tracks and fight with riders like Henry, Oeff] Ward and jurgen Kunzel, although I know jurgen a little bit already. It is always interesting to visit a new country and see new cultures, new riders and new teams." After the rain went away and the sun came out, drying the track for the 16-lap race two, Henry scored a huge win with a grinding, last-lap pass on VDB to give his new team its first win in its AMA Supermoto-c1ass debut. VDB again grabbed the holeshot, followed by Henry, Kunzel and reigning AMA Supermoto Champion jeff Ward on the Troy Lee Designs Honda. The four 34 JUNE 15,2005 • CYCLE NEWS riders quickly checked out on the rest of the field, dazzling the Road America fans as they ran nose to tail. Henry, who was one of the few riders in the field to choose front and rear slick tires for the race while his competitors chose a rain front with a slick rear, managed to get a run on VDB two turns from the finish and pull off a paint-swapper for the win. VDB was second and Kunzel third, again. "It was good," the 35-year-old Henry said. "We came into the weekend and just slowly increased our pace. The first race didn't go so well. I just lost the back end and couldn't save it. But once things dried out, I was lucky with the tire choice. "I have a lot of experience with it raining and then drying up," Henry, who hails from Connecticut, said. "When I saw that he [VDB] had that rain tire on the front, I knew it wasn't going to make it. He rode phenomenal. I can't believe how fast he was going with the condition of that rain tire, but I was able to drive into the corners much deeper than him and make the apexes a lot faster than him. That's what made the difference." Consistency was the hallmark of Kunzel's and Ward's days. Kunzel's two third-place finishes left him second in the series standings. "Two times on the podium is a really good start for me," Kunzel said. "My tires were not so good for the second race, and it was very hard to pass guys. I am very happy with my weekend. For me, the rain was race-perfect. The second race was very close, and I wanted to be safe and make the points." Ward was less than thrilled with his pair of fourth-place finishes. "I'm not happy with that, but I didn't ride for a month because of Indy [Indianapolis 500], so I didn't feel that good - but that's no excuse," Ward said. "In the first race, my bike got water in the tank, and it quit off the line, so I dropped back and worked up to fourth. It was raining so hard I couldn't see. We thought we fixed the bike for the second race, but it bogged off the line again in the second race. I dropped back to sixth, and I got it back and just hung with those guys. It was hard to set up any passes. I was hurting a little bit. I couldn't dive in deep enough to make any passes. It was a little aggravating, but I've never ridden on rain tires. But the points are really tight, so I'm happy. We finished. It was just a matter of who had the start."

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